Article by
Barbados Today

Published on
February 17, 2014

Minister of Tourism Richard SealyGovernment is moving to slash input costs for hotels.Minister of Tourism Richard Sealy said meetings were held last week with representatives of the manufacturing and agriculture sectors, who are concerned about the impact this could have on their operations.But he explained that stakeholders will have the opportunity to be first in line to supply hotels.
“All of the inputs, within reason, will be viewed as inputs in an export sector and therefore will not attract any duties or taxation. We’re trying to work it out. It’s not a simple process,” he announced at the reopening of the Escape Hotel in St Lawrence Gap, which has been renamed Infinity on the Beach.
“They(stakeholders) are balking at the thought of allowing that but we believe that if we can set the appropriate mechanisms in place where they are given the opportunity to supply the sector first then you can resort to importing,” the minister added.